Carnivals and Kisses
by Reichenbach
Summary: Bart and Cassandra spend quality time behind the sausage tent.


Bart Allen breathed a sigh of relief when Nightwing and Wally stalked away. "What a bunch of spazes!" Sitting on the bench beside Cassandra Cain, he turned back to her. "You doing better?" He asked just to be answered by her bending over and letting lose another puke.  
  
Cass bent over and puked between her legs in the grass of the fair ground just as the carosel behind them began spinning and tooting again. Its lights swirling on the ground made Bart kind of dizzy. Maybe HE shouldn't have had that seventh corn dog.  
  
He was the fastest junior high schooler around. The Speed Force kept him from getting wind burn and getting sick when he ran, why couldn't it work when you ate so much your stomach was going to burst? Bart didn't understand that stuff.  
  
"Not better," Cassandra answered as she sat up. Her pony tail flipped behind her head and she stared out into the carnival grounds. "Missed."  
  
"You hit his shoe," Bart said. Bat people were perfectionists.  
  
"Wanted to puke on pants."  
  
Bart grinned. "Well, we'll have to work on it for next time. Practice makes perfect." Looking from side to side, then checking once behind him, Bart commited, then made his move. His arm wound around Cassandra's shoulders. That was twice in three dates. He ruled.  
  
"What a spaz?" she asked.  
  
Bart looked at her with wide eyes, surprised. She didn't know what a spaz was? "Well, it's… It's like…" Obviously HE didn't either, Bart decided, when he realized he had no words for it. "When you're like… all… BLAAHHH!" He pulled his lower lip down and showed off his teeth, flared his nose and made his eyes wiggle in the sockets.  
  
"Nightwing a spaz," Cass replied with new understanding. Bart handed her a napkin, and she wiped her mouth. Throwing the napkin on the ground, she pulled him to his feet. "We go some place else. Smells."  
  
Nodding, Bart followed. He liked it when she dragged him along. They weaved through the crowed, and came out on the other side of the booths and rides. "What're we doing back here?" Bart asked cautiously.  
  
"We stay back here?" she asked. "Not bad," she followed up with, suddenly aware of his suspicion. "Quieter. We sit."  
  
"You still feeling pukey?" Bart felt compelled to ask.  
  
"I good."  
  
"Good."  
  
They sat in the grass behind the hot sausage stand. If Bart wasn't half- ready to puke himself, he'd go get some. And Max had only given him a limited amount of money. He'd wanted a hundred dollars, but Max said not no way, not no how. But he wanted to make her have a good time.  
  
He liked her smile and he wanted to see it more often. Maybe he could buy that smile with cotton candy and rides on the Scrambler, he didn't know. But he wanted to try.  
  
"So. What do we do back here?" He sat all Indian style and stared at the brown, scraggly grass.  
  
"Dunno." She began ripping the grass out of the ground and blowing on it, making it fly a little before it came drifting down. "We make out. That make Batman mad."  
  
"You WANT to make Batman mad?" he asked in awe. She was so awesome.  
  
"He a spaz," she said, curling up onto her side next to him.  
  
"I don't think Batman's a spaz. Once he grabbed me by the hair." He turned and rolled onto his side so he could look at her. "He's totally awesome. If like… I didn't wanna be the Flash when I grew up, I'd wanna be Batman."  
  
Her skin was perfect, and soft. Like chocolate milk. That's what he realized when he looked at her round cheeks as she smiled at him. Her pretty brown eyes were like the outside of almonds. She was like a chocolate bar. She was sweet, and dark and pretty. Max was all worried about her being a Bat-person, but she was so totally not a Bat-person when she wasn't being Batgirl. She was a normal girl, and she was his pal.  
  
"Batman is Dad," she told him. She started picking small bits of grass out of his big bushy hair.  
  
"I don't have a dad," he told her honestly. Wally's kinda my cousin. Max takes care of me. My grandma's in the future." Bart sighed. "Can Batman adopt me?"  
  
"Max is Dad," she said with certainty.  
  
Bart bit his bottom lip. "Sometimes, I think Max doesn't want me around."  
  
She rubbed his hair. "Max likes. Gives you money."  
  
Bart shrugged. He hadn't thought about it like that. He wasn't sure what it meant, but Batgirl knew about dads. "I wanted lots of money, but Max gave me fifty and said that's all I'm getting. Do dads do that?"  
  
"Batman not give money," she told him. "He says Bart pay if knows what's good." She shrugged. "You good. You pay." Her arm came up and flopped down on his shoulder. Her chocolately lips pulled back and she smiled again. Bart kinda wanted to eat her up.  
  
It had been a lousy year. He'd stopped being Impulse for a while, he'd lost Carol. Sometimes it didn't make sense to him that he should be happy now. But Max said things just kept changing and moving on, and everyone, especially speedsters, had to keep moving on too. Then Bart asked him for more money.  
  
And Batgirl really made him happy. Bart didn't know much about anything. Not in this time at least. But it always amazed him when Cassandra got excited over stuff. He asked for extra butter on the popcorn last week, and her eyes lit up. She liked soda and candies, except for the gummy ones, but he thought those were yucky too. Tonight he got her to eat funnel cake and corn dogs. She'd rode rides for the first time, and he liked how happy she got over it.  
  
Robin had warned him to be good to her. Robin had said she'd never gotten to do anything as a kid, and he should show her a good time, and that was going pretty good. He liked how much fun she was having now, but she was sad that she hadn't had any fun yet.  
  
And here they were, being all relaxed and stuff. He liked to speed around, because that's what speedsters did. But there was this whole new weirdness when he was with Cassandra. He could sit down and just… look at her. Slowly.  
  
Almond eyes, Chocolate milk skin. She was SUCH a pretty girl.  
  
Bart propped his head up on his hand, with his elbow planted firmly in the warm, dry earth. "Cass?"  
  
Cass's wandering gaze found his golden eyes again, and locked in on them. "Huh?"  
  
"Is the weird guy in the leisure suit here?" That guy was a total freaktard, and he kinda scared Bart.  
  
Cass broke eye contact with him and poked her head up, looking around. "No Matches," she assured him.  
  
"What about Robin?" Bart's voice was cautious but unrevealing.  
  
She shook her head no.  
  
"Wally and Nightwing?"  
  
Cassandra's eyes met his again. "Nope. Wally says we're dumb. Not stay around."  
  
Bart grinned, then met her eyes again. She wasn't Carol, but she was still the best girl he knew. She had all the good girl stuff-she was pretty and she was fun—and she had the best guy stuff. She could beat him up real good. Bart didn't know what he'd done to get so lucky.  
  
"Then I wanna try something," he said finally. He pulled himself a little closer to her, and the hand the wasn't supporting his head reached out and touched her hair. He twisted the pony tail around his fingers and felt how thick and soft it was. It was like a bunny's hair, if it were real long. Why didn't bunnies have long hair?  
  
Her lower lip got all round and pouty—maybe more poutier than it already was. It was pretty too.  
  
Not knowing what to do about it all, Bart leaned forward and kissed that lower lip.  
  
It was cool, and soft and sweet… and Bart decided he liked girls—this girl in particular—very much.  
  
THE END 


End file.
